A new asset class growing under Hockey's nose

In an environment where 'record highs' threaten to turn into 'record busts', a growing number of Australians are treating housing as an annuity which provides protected, low returns in times of volatility.

“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens" — John Maynard Keynes

When Keynes wrote the above line in his 1919 book Economic Consequences of the Peace, old age was a grim business -- though the average worker didn't live long enough, or have enough in retirement savings, to worry too much about inflation 'confiscating' their wealth.

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